Humanities & technology camp at Boise State

Interested in the intersection of the humanities and technology? Then attend the fourth THATCamp Boise State from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13 in the Student Union Building. THATCamp stands for The Humanities and Technology Camp.

THATCamps are user-generated unconferences, "an open, inexpensive meeting where humanists and technologists of all skill levels learn and build together in sessions proposed on the spot.”

The theme for this year's THATCamp is “Access, Empowerment, and Expression.” Educators, developers, coders, geeks, artists, students, teachers, historians, librarians, authors, hackers, archivists, philosophers, actors, creatives, or those interested in the humanities and/or technology are encouraged to attend.

In addition to local keynote speakers, our own ScholarWorks librarians Amber Sherman and Michelle Armstrong will lead a workshop on open access and author rights.

This is a full-day event, free and open to the public. Breakfast and lunch will be provided, with free parking available next to the Student Union Building. Space is limited so registration is required.

To learn more about THATCamp Boise State, go to boisestate2016.thatcamp.org.

October is American Archives Month!

What is an archives? An archives is a place where people go to find information. But rather than
gathering information from books as you would in a library, people who do research in archives
often gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs,
audio and video recordings, and other primary sources.

MSS 006 52-002 - Len Jordan and Dwight Eisenhower,
Western Governors Conference in Boise, 1952

Why do archives exist? In the course of daily life, individuals, organizations, and governments
create and keep information about their activities. Archivists are professionals who assess,
collect, organize, preserve, maintain control of, and provide access to the portions of this
information that have lasting value. Archivists keep records that have enduring value as reliable
memories of the past, and they help people find and understand the information they need in
those records.

Boise State University Special Collections and Archives in Albertsons Library holds more than 300 manuscript collections of letters, journals, diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and other
primary-source materials that document Idaho history, particularly the Boise and Southwest Idaho, Idaho’s past and present political and environmental history, and the literary history of the state. Research topics include politics, environment, Basque culture, filmmaking, literature, ethnicity, gender, music, geosciences, and many others.

MSS 062 p11 - Article about the opening of the new student union
at Boise Junior College, 1942

The University Archives is the repository for university publications and the official records of the President, Faculty Senate, ASBSU, administrative offices, and academic departments. Materials include the student newspaper, university catalogs, budgets, yearbooks, photographs, audio and video, books, posters, and other ephemera. Research topics include faculty, students, campus life, buildings, academic departments, athletics, student organizations, and university departments.

Everyone is welcome to do research or just look at something you find interesting. We welcome students, staff, faculty, and anyone from the community. We hope you come visit!

Cheryl Oestreicher,
Head, Special Collections and Archives

Copies of "The Idea of Nature" Public Lecture Series Available Through ScholarWorks

In spring 2012, a new public lecture series, Ideas of Nature, began at Boise State University. The goal of the series is to promote interdisciplinary inquiry and to foster dialogue across the campus and community, based on the premise that big questions need interdisciplinary answers.

How are conceptions of nature expressed in literature, art, philosophy, music, and other humanities disciplines? How did ideas of nature change from 1660 to the present, a period of radical change and revolution?

The lecture series is continuing on March 12th when Dr. Dan Philippon, University of Montana, will
lecture on the “Slow Food” movement in Europe. Although Slow Food is often portrayed as a contrast to fast food, it is less about speed than scale. Visits with artisan food producers in Italy's Piedmont region, where Slow Food was born, illustrate the weaknesses in the romantic understanding of nature as "other" and confirm that scale is the key variable in the search for sustainability.

All lectures are free and open to the public and videos of past presentations can be downloaded from ScholarWorks:

• Robert Frost and the Forests of Vermont – John Elder
• Romanticism, Blake, and the Politics of Nature - Kevin Hutchings
• Henry David Thoreau and Health in Nature - James Engell
• On Metaphor and Progress: Nature in Literature and Landscape Painting in 19th Century America - Rochelle Johnson
• The Poetics of Nature - James McKusick

Each video is made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Michelle Armstrong,
Librarian / Asst. Professor